Oil and gas rigs are used in the field for many purposes, including drilling, workover, and maintenance operations. Land-based drilling rigs generally consist of engines, a drawworks, a mast (or derrick), pumps to circulate the drilling fluid (mud) under various pressures, blowout preventers, drill string and related equipment. The engines power the different pieces of equipment, including a rotary table or top drive that turns the drill string, causing the drill bit to bore through the subsurface rock layers. Rock cuttings are carried to the surface by the circulating drilling fluid. The intended well depth, bore hole diameter and drilling site conditions are the principal factors that determine the size and type of rig most suitable for a particular drilling job. Land-based workover rigs (commonly referred to as well servicing rigs), on the other hand, consist of a mobile carrier, engine, drawworks and a mast. The primary function of a workover rig is to act as a hoist so that pipe, sucker rods and down-hole equipment can be run into and out of a well. Land-based workover rigs are easier to move between well sites and different geographical areas of operations than drilling rigs. Typically, the rigs are self-propelled and have less auxillary equipment to move. Because of size and cost considerations, workover rigs are used for these operations rather than the larger drilling rigs.
Typically, an oil and gas field will have many sites or boreholes at which drilling or maintenance operations are to take place. Thus, a rig may be positioned at one worksite, and then must be moved to another worksite. A typical method of moving a drilling or working rig from one worksite to another involves breaking down the rig, loading the rig onto a self-propelled or towed vehicle or trailer, then reassembling the rig at a new worksite. Known self-propelled or towed vehicles ride on wheels with rubber tires or tracks. Whichever type of support is used, this type of operation is labor intensive, time consuming, and often dangerous. All the time that is spent in such a move is lost production time.
Thus, there remains a need for a quick and efficient means of moving a rig from one site to another in an oil and gas field. The system disclosed herein is directed to filling this need in the art.